Is there such a thing as yogurt with vegetables?

[Violatp]

Or would that be just dip?

I was eating a Chobani pineapple yesterday and as I was stirring it up, I realized that I've never seen, or even heard of, a similar product where instead of fruit, you'd stir up salsa or ratatouille or butternut squash.

I think if it was made as a dip, it would be perfectly normal, but would you eat it from a cup like fruited yogurt?

I kinda want to make some of my own just to see if it's edible, even.

[debbiel]

Increasing commercially available savory yogurt addressed in this article. http://nyti.ms/ZboXV7

[Violatp]

Nice! Thanks for that link. And that picture looks good!

[antimony]

The yogurt is only one of the components, but chaat is basically fried dough bits, vegetables of various sorts (chutney and chickpeas, often), and yogurt -- the yogurt-to-chunks ratio varies a lot. I've bought it done up like little parfait cups where there was more yogurt than usual that were really delicious.

[flamale863]

This isnt a cup of yougurt idea but rather another way to combine yogurt with a vegetable...Borscht is an Eastern European beet soup and it is usually garnished with a huge blop of sour cream but plain unflavored yogurt would be just as good...Its almost Passover...try it???

[Lori D]

Yogurt used as a garnish on a baked potato (instead of sour cream) also works very well.

[GraceW]

I have never seen a pre-packed yogurt with vegetables, but during college, two ballerinas came from Finland to study at my university (and stayed in my dorm). They ate Activa-yogurt with spinach... heated-up.. for every meal. I am pretty adventurous, but I have no desire to try that.

[debbiel]

I couldn't eat it for every meal, but a hot spinach-yogurt dish sounds great to me. Hopefully with a bit of garlic, maybe some onion...Yum. To each his own. :)

[Rasam]

Spinach and yogurt is a classic combination in Indian food.

I don't know what spices/seasonings the ballerinas used, but there are several recipes for Spinach Raita, and also for Spinach Kadhi (where the yogurt is heated up with the other ingredients, rather than cold/cool like raita).
These are all very delicious dishes in Indian food. There are lots of recipes based on regional and family variation, so a little googling will find you one that you like.

Here are a couple of links:
Spinach Kadhi:
http://deeptiskitchen.blogspot.com/2011/07/spinach-kadhi-recipe.html

Simple spinach raita without garlic
http://umaskitchenexperiments.blogspot.com/2011/10/spinach-raita.html

Spinach raita with garlic:
http://authenticfooddelights.blogspot...

[GraceW]

Those do look interesting! I should mention perhaps also this was right when Activa came out.. and as a college-kid, the concept of Activa seemed unappealing in the first place.

[adventuresinbaking]

I used to go to the Turkish restaurant by my house and get the dill yogurt to dip in veggies and on my shawarma. It was really good.

[pagesinthesun]

In honor of this thread, I had Fage 0% with a diced roasted beet and a diced tomato and s/p this morning. It was really tasty.

[Rasam]

That sounds really good, and must have been a pretty pink colour :) Next time, drizzle some toasted cumin powder on it for an extra good flavour note. :)

[Harters]

Botanically, rhubarb yoghurt would be a veggie one. Certainly it's very tasty - I buy the Danone ones from the supermarket.

[pagesinthesun]

I agree! There should be a product like this. Great idea!

I scorn sweet/fruity breakfast. I will often mix in veg/herbs into my yogurt for breakfast. Tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley. I'm going to try to add a salsa in there too after reading this thread. The options are endless!

[Rasam]

I also like savory mixins into yogurt. I personally don't like sweet yogurt or any of the "mishti doi" isotopes, other than shrikhand as a dessert occasionally.

For savory yogurt, there is always raita, of which there are dozens of recipes, from the cucumber raita most well known in the West, to things like boondi raita, spinach raita, tomato/onion raita, okra raita, etc etc. Some of those rely on the contrast of crisp texture so can't be mixed or manufactured in advance. But others can, and I wonder why some convenience food maker hasn't done this already.

I take plain yogurt in my packed lunch every day and always carry a little baggie of Indian pickle of some kind: lemon, mixed veg, mango, green chilli, whatever, to mix it in with. This is home style eating, to end the meal with yogurt with something mixed in, either sweet or savory depending on your preference.

Why haven't the Indian manufacturers thought of making this? I bet there are lots of people like me who would buy this type of product. I have seen huge tubs of yogurt in the Indian store, but not the little individual servings, and certainly none with flavors. If they made little individual shrikhands I could get seriously into that, and if they made little individual raitas or plain yogurt with achaar in a little separate compartment, that would be fantastic!

How hard can this be? I hope one of them reads this and takes it up!

[JungMann]

For most of its history in the US, yogurt has been a sweetened snack either set with fruit at the bottom of a cup or swiss-style, with the fruit mixed in. It wasn't until recently that plain or strained yogurt became popular and Americans began using it in savory applications.

There is a Greek restaurant near me that sells yogurt cups with olives and certainly there are yogurty eggplant or chickpea dips out there, but I think we're still a ways off from seeing options like this commonplace.

[Violatp]

Well, if it becomes the next big thing, remember you heard it here first.

;-)

[ipsedixit]

Spinach

[cayjohan]

My weekday lunches almost always include yogurt, and I generally stir in some sort of chopped vegetable "salsa. We always make salsas fresh, so I consider them rather like a loose "salad" versus a condiment. (I do make fairly finely chopped salsas, and go easy on the salt, so maybe it all moves into the blurry area of salady-soup that gazpacho occupies.) Lately, the salsa of choice has been tomatoes/pineapple/onions/cilantro(plus stems)/jalapeno, along with garlic, lime juice and salt. Often, just a tomato salsa, sometimes with some cucumber, like a chopped gazpacho. When the teeny zukes are out in the summer, I'll dice those up as well. The tsatziki combo shows up too, often with a lot of finely chopped parsley and some dill. I usually use about half salsa to half yogurt. The yogurt I make at home is a looser culture, so this is sort of a medium thick "soup." Sometimes, we use buttermilk the same way for an even more soup-like consistency. I really like savory yogurt; even if I don't have some more composed salsa-esque combination at the ready, I add some minced onion or scallion, garlic and a sprinkle of salt. We also generally have some lightly pickled beets around, and those are sensational stirred into yogurt, along with some fresh herbs. Honestly, I rarely eat a sweet, fruity yogurt.

More than just edible, it's really delicious!

[Violatp]

Pickled beets sounds delicious! See, I think this could be a thing. Someone run with this! If there was a packaged product like this, I would buy it immediately. It could be packaged like the Fage ones - yogurt on one side and a little veggie type thing on the other.

And, really, I'm going to get some pickled beets this week and do this. The sweet/sour of pickled beets would be amazing with some full fat Greek yogurt.

[foodieX2]

My newest addiction are sweetfire beets. I bring a container to work and eat them with fage 0% greek yogurt as my lunch. Yum

[debbiel]

Ooh. Beets. I love roasted beets stirred into yogurt. I'd be willing to go with pickled beets.

[julesrules]

I had from the Greek deli a salad that was more or less beets in tatziki - quite good!
My 3 year old happily eats tatziki with a spoon.

[pie22]

do you eat this straight...dip into it...top it on something?

[cayjohan]

Straight, sort of like a cold vegetable and yogurt soup-like dish, usually in a half veg, half yogurt proportion. If I have some appropriate fresh herbs, they get tossed in as well.

So many vegetables work well this way. I just recently polished off the leftovers of a Georgian-esque green bean and walnut dish in this way. It was exceptionally good. I'm looking forward to warmer weather so we can have more yogurt and veg soups on the dinner rotation, rather than just as my lunchtime concoctions.

[pie22]

interesting, thanks!

[lamb_da_calculus]

The first thing that came to my mind was Raita, which is an Indian/south Asian dish with a yogurt base and many variations. The one I know uses tomatoes and onions and coriander.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raita

[tastesgoodwhatisit]

That's what I thought of - yoghurt, vegetables, seasonings. It's usually served as a side dish, but I'll happily eat it with a spoon, and I don't like plain or fruited yoghurt.

[tardigrade]

There are probably many Indian vegetable dishes that use yogurt in the sauce, but raitas are the ones that come to mind first. In addition to the common cucumber/tomato raita, I've seen it made with eggplants, with beets, with spinach, with okra - I think it would be interesting with sweet potatoes.

[debbiel]

I haven't seen it as a prepared product (though I haven't looked--I just buy plain yogurt). I do often mix grated carrot into yogurt. It's a refreshing snack for me.

[cayjohan]

I've never tried carrot, but it sounds wonderful! Just straight up grated carrot? I like a little ground coriander sprinkled in yogurt, and I imagine that would go very well with the carrots. Must try!

[debbiel]

The coriander would be good! I've been on a za'atar kick lately, so have been sprinkling some of that in. And I go pretty heavy on the carrot.

[cresyd]

Plain sumac sprinkled on yogurt is also really tasty.

[debbiel]

That sounds good. I'll give it a try tomorrow.

[debbiel]

Well I failed to try this the next day as planned And then forgot about it until today. I just had it with some carrots. Absolutely wonderful, so refreshing. Thanks very much for the suggestion!

[nemo]

Cottage cheese with vegetables has been around for ages, so it's not such a stretch to think of yoghurt with vegetables. I'd prefer raw and crunchy rather than roasted.

http://www.aedairy.com/products.cfm?P...

[flamale863]

Id consider the Greek Tsatziki sauce a yogurt with vegetables...Its made with "plain" yogurt,diced cucumbers,onion and garlic with a dash of white pepper and squeeze of fresh lemon...Look it up and make some and serve it with grilled meat or just dip some toasted pita triangles in it...its fabulous...

[melpy]

I eat yogurt as a side dish to Indian and middle eastern food all the time. Plain and almost always Greek. I will also add salt and strain for a sort of labneh knockoff.

[cresyd]

If you're talking about a prepared/packaged item then I don't know of any yogurt with vegetable products. Though in Israel there are brands of cottage cheese that come prepared with olives in them.

However, as a "thing" the quickest that comes to mind are the various yogurt and cucumber condiments. Typically it's used as a condiment to other dishes, but I don't see why it couldn't be eaten as it's own dish.

[Violatp]

Yup, I definitely mean a pre-packaged product. I did forget about tzatziki and similar, which I'm pretty sure I would just eat with a spoon as it is crazy delicious.

It just seems weird though, that yogurt with fruit seems to be a normal thing, eaten with a spoon for lunch, but yogurt with vegetables is a dip or a side dish or a condiment.

I'm going to saute up some zucchini and red peppers and give it a go.

[cresyd]

Definitely no reason why it wouldn't work as a flavor combination - yogurt can be really versatile with different flavors.

I've made condiments before taking roasted onions and blending them with yogurt - so if that tastes yummy, no reason why it wouldn't taste yummy as a snack.